North Carolina

Sandy ocean beaches in the United States are popular tourist and recreational destinations and constitute some of the most valuable real estate in the country. The boundary between land and water along the coastline is often the location of concentrated residential and commercial development and is frequently exposed to a range of natural hazards, which include flooding, storm effects, and coastal erosion. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting a national assessment of coastal change hazards. One component of this research effort, the National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/shoreline-change/), documents changes in shoreline position as a proxy for coastal...

USGS National Shoreline Change - 2017 lidar-derived mean high water shoreline and associated shoreline change data for coastal North Carolina

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled national shoreline data for more than 20 years to document coastal change and serve the needs of research, management, and the public. Maintaining a record of historical shoreline positions is an effective method to monitor national shoreline evolution over time, enabling scientists to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers and planners understand which areas of the coast are vulnerable to change. This data release includes one new mean high water (MHW) shoreline extracted from lidar data collected in 2017 for the entire coastal region of North Carolina which is divided into four subregions: northern North Carolina...

Tags: coastal processes, erosion, geospatial datasets, none, shoreline accretion

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